COVID-19 and the Food Industry: The Outpost sees increase in demand for catering – wlfi.com

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) News 18 continues to track how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the food industry in Greater Lafayette. While restaurants have faced many challenges, the catering business is also attempting to recover from the pandemic.

For The Outpost in Lafayette, business dropped significantly when the pandemic hit. The venue lost 95 percent of its scheduled bookings, but office manager Monica Rowland says now, theyre seeing substantial progress.

The Outpost has been able to reschedule nearly all of the events it lost in 2020, according to Rowland. Right now, bookings are at around 90 percent of where they were prior to the pandemic.

Rowland says the uncertainty of the past two years has been difficult, and finding unique ways to keep some business on the books during that span has been key.

We were very creative, doing boxed lunches and things like that, Rowland said. We were able to try to keep business going as much as we possibly could.

The venue was able to keep staff members employed throughout the pandemic. They transferred those employees to the owners other two establishments, Old Buffalo and Sgt. Prestons.

Rowland says the biggest challenge now is handling the supply chain slowdowns. Many of the items the facility orders are either taking significantly longer to arrive or are unavailable altogether, making it hard to keep up with demand. As a result, the facility is increasing its prices until the market stabilizes.

While the last two years have been challenging, Rowland says The Outpost has been able to use the down time to improve the facility.

We were able to install some new dance floors that we have, Rowland said. Ordered some new chairs, did some upgrades to our bathroom. Kind of freshening it up a lot."

Rowland says the upgraded facility is also set to open back up for food tastings heading into the spring wedding season, which it hasnt been able to do since the start of the pandemic. She added that they are looking to hire some additional catering staff as the peak season approaches.

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COVID-19 and the Food Industry: The Outpost sees increase in demand for catering - wlfi.com